The Relation Between Caregivers' Multiliterate Reading Habits and Their Children's Oral Health Status

BackgroundCaregivers’ oral health literacy (OHL) assessment results have been found to be related to their children’s oral health status. A further aspect of this relationship may be the role of caregivers’ reading habits. ObjectiveOur goal was to describe the relationship between caregivers’ multimodal (digital and print) and multilingual (English and Chinese) reading habits, their OHL, and their child’s oral health status in Hong Kong. MethodsA random sample of 301 child-caregiver dyads was recruited from kindergartens in Hong Kong. Data included sociodemographic information and caregivers’ self-reported digital print and reading habits across two languages (Chinese and English). Caregivers’ OHL levels were assessed by two locally developed and validated oral health literacy assessment tasks: Hong Kong Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Dentistry-30 (HKREALD-30) and the Hong Kong Oral Health Literacy Assessment Task for Pediatric Dentistry (HKOHLAT-P). Children’s oral health status was assessed using two measures: dental caries experience (number of decayed, missing, and filled teeth) and oral hygiene status (Visible Plaque Index). ResultsBivariate variations revealed significant differences in mean OHL scores between caregivers with different reading habits (P.05). ConclusionsCaregivers’ habits of reading print and digital Chinese texts are significantly associated with their OHL scores. Their reading habits, however, do not affect their children’s oral health status.